Process and catalyst for treating polymerizable substances



Patented Jan. 9, 1940 A PATIENT oar-ice PROCESS AND CATALYST FOR TREATING POLYDIERIZABLE SUBSTANCES.

Melvin M. Holm Berkeley, Calif and William H. Shiiiler, assignors to Standard: Oil

Company of California, San Francisco, Calif; a corporation of Delaware No Drawing.

Application March 9, '1988, Serial 'No. 194,859

'1 Claims. (01. 196-10) This application is a continuation in part of our co-pending application, Serial No. 67,917, filed March 9, 1936. I

This invention relates broadly to catalytic reactions involving polymerizable molecules and to a particular type of catalyst for use in such reactions. It is applied specifically to a process for the polymerization of normally gaseous oleiine hydrocarbons wherein the product desired is a liquid boiling in the range of gasoline, useful as a fuel for internal combustion engines, and to catalysts for effecting such polymerization.

There are many readily polymerizable materials that take part in catalytic reactions of considerable economic importance at the present time. They include the unsaturated hydrocarbons of relatively low molecular weight such as the normally gaseous olefines, other unsaturated hydrocarbons such as the acetylenes and diolefines and numerous aldehydes, ketones, phenols, amines, etc. While, as will be readily apparent from the description and discussion which follows, the broad catalytic principle of this invention is applicable to the catalytic reactions of any of them particular attention will be given herein to the polymerizable hydrocarbons of relatively low molecular weight and especially to the normally gaseous olefines and to catalytic agents useful in reactions in which they are involved and still more especially to their polymerization to volatile motor fuels and the catalytic agents especially adapted to such polymerization.

The catalytic reactions involving polymerizable unsaturated hydrocarbons of relatively low molecular weight include not only the direct polymerization of such unsaturates but also their isomerization, hydrogenation, dehyrogenation, hydration, dehydration, oxidation, esterification and condensation. The present invention is concerned primarily with the use of known polymerizing agents in a particularly advantageous form as catalysts in reactions in which the extent of polymerization must be rigorously limited to one or two or at most a very few unions and in the other types of reaction just enumerated in which no polymerization whatever is desired.

The possibility of polymerizing gaseous olefine hydrocarbons to'liquids, while long recognized, has only become of considerable economic interest with the development of the petroleum cracking industry in which large quantities of the lighter unsaturates are produced as a low value by-product. 'Various thermal and catalytic methods have now been proposed for converting such raw material into valuable commercial products. Among the more promising catalytic methods are those which employ the strong acids in one form or another as the catalyst. Y

It has long been known that liquid phosphoric acid and certain of its normal and acid salts have the ability, under a wide range of conditions, to polymerize olefines containing from two to five or more carbon atoms. During the past few years it has been further found that when the conditions of polymerization with a phosphoric type catalyst are correctly chosen and properly controlled a polymer product may be produced which has certain outstanding advantages in the preparation of high anti-knock motor fuels.

Much has already been accomplishedin deter- 1 mining the optimum conditions leading to the highest yields of the most desirable product for any specific such use and in applying'them to full scale commercial operation. Thedevelopment of specific catalysts to meet the diverse and exacting demands of such operation has, however,

failed to keep pace and as a result this otherwise promising new industry is still considerably hampered for want of an entirely satisfactory catalyst.

When the olefine polymerizing reaction is at- 25 tempted with ordinary liquid ortho phosphoric acid merely by bubbling the olefine as a gas through a bulk of acid, two major difliculties are encountered: First, the rate of the reaction under conditions leading to a high conversion of olefine to a desirable product is very low and, second, the corrosivity of liquid acid of the proper strength under such conditions, on otherwise practical equipment, is particularly high. These undesirable features have to a considerable extent been overcome through the development of so-called solid phosphoric acid catalysts. In these the acid is absorbed in diatomaceous earth and calcined at a fairly high temperature. The dry solid reaction product which may then in reality be a silicon phosphate is materially less corrosive and is at the same time apparently, by reason of its high porosity, sufliciently active under suitable conditions of pressure and temperature.

This improvement over the bulk liquid acid catalyst was, however, not realized without the introduction of certain undesirable features which tend very largely to offset the advantages gained. For instance, the solid catalyst even though strong and rugged appearing when fication at rather frequent intervals. The only method known for such revivification is to burn out the offending materials, such as gums, resins and tars deposited in the catalytically active pores, in a current of oxygen or air. Even when this step is carried out with the most extreme care possible, considerable additional disintegration and powdering appears inevitable with the overall result,that the number of cycles of active life of the catalyst is very definitely limited.

This, of course, necessitates periodic replacement of catalyst which together with idle time of the plant chargeable to revivification, very materially adds to the cost ofproduct while at the same time increasing the complexity and decreasing the reliability of plant operation.

In addition to the foregoing economic disadvantages and operating difficulties encountered with hitherto known catalysts in which the catalytically active component is phosphoric acid or a phosphate, when employed for the polymerization of gaseous olefines to low boiling liquid motor fuels an even more seriously objectionable feature has now been recognized in the highly porous solid phosphoric acid catalyst which it appears must be inherent in any porous catalyst in this use and in all other uses involving readily polymerizable materials. We have found that with such catalysts the extent to which the polymerization reaction is permitted to proceed is very much more diflicult of control than when the same active material in non-porous form is employed, the net result often being, as more fully hereinafter set forth, a very substantial loss in yield of the desired product.

It is accordingly the broad object of this invention to provide a form in which catalytic materials having appreciable polymerizing activity may be employed in any reaction involving readily polymerizable substances whereby the extent of polymerization may be rigorously controlled or, when polymerization per se is undesirable, substantially eliminated.

It is a further object of our invention to provide a process in which the active polymerizing agents are employed in a form of catalyst particularly adapted to the controlled polymerization of normally gaseous olefines to low boiling liquids useful as motor fuels and for the further preparation of fuels of high octane number particularly adapted to aviation service.

The realization of these objects is made possible through the discovery that when an active polymerizing agent such as sulfuric acid, benzene or toluene sulfonic acid and particularly phosphoric acid is distributed in a thin even film over the surface of a non-reactive, nonporous, non-absorbent solid the disadvantages encountered in the use of the same acid in bulk are substantially eliminated while the major advantages without the disadvantages of the porous solid phosphoric acid catalysts are obtained. Film-type catalysts of the active solid polymerizing agents such as aluminum chloride, zinc chloride and the metal phosphates afford similar advantages.

In general the acids of phosphorus in the phosphoric (+5) state of oxidation begin to show appreciable activity in the polymerization of olefines containing from two to five carbon atoms at a concentration of about 80% HaPO4 or 58% P205 in water and pass through a practical maximum between about 95 and 115% I-I3PO4 corresponding to 68-83% P205. While probably of no especial significance it may be noted in passing that pyro-phosphoric acid HdPiO'I, which corresponds to 110% I-LPO4 or 79.7% P205 has been found to occupy substantially the peak of this maximum range of polymerizing activity.

As the carrier or support for thin films of acid in this concentration range it has been found that fragments or pellets of broken or fused nonporous quartz admirably satisfy all the requirements for a catalyst for use at any practical temperature. Various other non-porous and non-absorbent materials have been found satisfactory within the lower range of temperatures in which it is practical to catalytically polymerize olefines, i. e., from about 50 F. to 250 or 300 F. but due to increased reactivity with the strong phosphoric acids at higher temperatures they may not be employed in the upper practical range of catalytic olefine polymerization which is from 300 to about 500 F.

For use in the lower temperature range borosilicate, Pyrex, glass particles, high chrome or chrome-molybdenum steel .chips or turnings, copper and even lead pellets may be employed without excessive attack by the acid. In the higher range quartz or fused silica, pure silica sand, illium metal, a specific chrome-nickelmolybdenum alloy, non-porous graphite, feld-' spar, hornblende, hard rubber and certain of the high melting, acid resistant synthetic resins have been found to offer more or less promise of practical utility. Of these broken quartz and quartz sand are readily available, are relatively inexpensive, and, being entirely satisfactory throughout the whole practical temperature range, will usually be found the best choice.

Obviousiy the catalyst support may be employed in specially prepared forms such as beads, pellets, annular rings, etc., however, such shapes aiford so little additional surface for the support of acid film over that available in simply broken fragments as not to be warranted. In full commercial scale equipment 4 to mesh and particularly 10-20 mesh fragments have been found appropriate with the gas velocities that are desirable in the polymerization reaction in question.

' While the foregoing discussion of our film-type polymerization catalyst has been directed to the specific instance in which an acid of phosphorus constitutes the active polymerizing agent, other polymerizing agents such as aluminum chloride, zinc chloride, the metal phosphates such as cadacid, the sulfonic acids, selenium, stannic chloride, antimony trichloride, copper chloride, mercuric chloride, zirconium chloride, the alkali metals and their oxides and hydroxides, boric acid, boric anhydr'ide, phosphorus halides and oxides, metal soaps such as aluminum naphthenate, the metal alcoholates and similar materials may also be applied with advantage in thin films and with each the non-porous support would be selected not only, as indicated above, withrespect to the temperature of operation contemplated but also with respect to the individual reactivity of the catalytically active material to be supported.

In the preparation of a catalyst of the filmtype employing phosphoric acid, as in the particular process of this invention, it is desirable to distribute a thin, more or less uniform film or coating of acid over the whole surface of the supporting body but to avoid so far as possible any excess of acid which might lodge as large 'drops in the interstices and in effect constitute pounds of HsPO4 is required for reaction both dead space and waste acid so far 'as the reaction is concerned. To this end it has been found advantageous, as more fully described and claimed in an application Serial No. 67,921 copending herewith, to prepare the catalyst in place in the catalyst chamber by contacting the support previously placed therein with liquid phosphoric acid of considerably lower concentration than that which is ultimately to constitute the catalyst, permitting excess acid to drain off and then concentrating the acid in a current of gas of proper humidity. While of somewhat less advantage with polymerizing acids which are, at polymerizing strength, considerably'less viscous than strong phosphoric acid, for instance sulfuric acid, it will be apparent to those skilled in the art that this method of preparing a film-type catalyst in place is of general utility and may be employed with any polymerizing agent that can beapplied in aqueous solution.

As compared to a bulk liquid catalyst of the same acid strength a quartz supported acid-film catalyst so prepared is relatively non-corrosive to equipment since all the acid present is in a thin film adsorbed on the surface of the support and actual contact of acid with the walls of the catalyst chamber is possible only over a relatively small area. .There is no continual bathing of the chamber surfaces by liquid acid and hence no removal of the protecting layer of such reaction products as may be formed. As

a result simple lead-lined equipment may be, and in fact has been, used for many months without appreciable deterioration, whereas with liquid phosphoric acid in the same service serious damage results in a few weeks.

The conventional manner of employing bulk liquid acid as an olefine gas polymerizing catalyst has been by bubbling the gas through the liquid either with or without solid surfaces pres- 'ent to break up and distribute the gas bubbles. A cubic foot of catalyst space filled with 100% H3PO4 and 10-20 mesh quartz as the baille sur-- face will contain about 52 pounds of acid whereas a cubic foot of the 10-20 mesh quartz-acidfilm catalyst prepared as herein described will contain only about 3.5 to 5.0 pounds of acid,

with diatomaceous earth in the preparation of one cubic foot of 4-10 mesh solid acid or silicon phosphate catalyst. Its polymerizing activity measured in terms of low-boiling liquid 'polymer produced is, however, not materially greater per unit volume than that of an acid-film catalyst. Obviously in addition to this very large advantage in materials cost the acid-film catalysts are far less expensive to prepare since they may be prepared in place and require no calcining or equivalent treatment. Neither is any powdering vor equivalent progressive loss requiring replacement necessary with the catalyst of this invention and such regeneration or reactivation as may be necessary at infrequent intervals is, as will be more fully explained hereinaftenof an extremely simple andinexpensive nature.

The really fundamental advantage in a catalyst consisting of an acid-film supported on a non-porous surface over the highly porous solid acid catalysts and, in fact, over any porous solid catalyst in a polymerization reaction has, however, been found to reside in the exactness with which the extent of polymerization may be controlled. The significance of this feature can be easily appreciated from the consideration of a specific instance. In polymerizing butenes for the production of a liquid fuel boiling within the rangeof aviation gasolineit is highly desirable that only the dimer should be formed since the trimer boils above the permissible range and hence each such molecule produced represents a loss of one and a half potential molecules of the desired fuel. While in actual practice in which a butane-butene cut from a petroleum cracking system or from av dehydrogenated natural gas constitutes the raw material for the polymerization process the situation will seldom be so simple the principle is exactly the same.

As a practical illustration, data on actual polymer products from the same gas under conditions,

. solid phosphoric acid catalyst are presented in the following table. ,c

Table Run number 20 21 ll 23 Cataly Acid-film "Solid acid" Acid-film Solid-acid" Polymerization:

Temperature F 800 300 230' 250 Pressure. u --atmospheres.. 1 1 1 ercen u ene Feed comp f" Percent 2-butene 56 54 60 55 Space velocity (vol. gas/vol. catalyst/min. 70 F) 0. 64 0. 69 0. 74 1 2. 70 Percent entering olefine polymerized 91 93 87 89 Percent aviation gasoline in polymer 74 I 57 76 68 a maximum of 10% and an average of about 8% as much acid, and yet the acid-film catalyst will have a polymerizing activity per unit volume at least and equal and usually superior to the liquid acid catalyst.

It is thus' obvious that in having reduced corrosion to an entirely practical level and in having increased the catalytic activity per cost unit of acid by over 1200% the acid-film catalysts of the present invention constitute a material advance over the bulk acid catalysts of the prior art.

When compared withthe aforementioned solid phosphoric acid" catalysts-an even greater'superiority in economy must be ascribed to the acid-film catalysts together with still other and more fundamental advantages.

From 50 to 60 In runs 20 and 21 under identical conditions of temperature, pressure, time and extent of olefine conversion the non-porous catalyst will be seen to have given a 30% higher yield of aviation gasoline than was obtained with the porous contact mass. In runs 11 and 23, wherein the apparent time of contact between the gas and'the .porous catalyst was reduced in order to avoid as far as possible over-polymerization the nonporous catalyst still produced 12% more aviation gasoline than did the porous material.

Not only is the advantage of limiting overpolymerization through the use of a non-porous catalyst apparent in increased yields of the desired product, but it is also worth while in simplifying and improving plant operation. With less over-polymerization less tar and gum will be formed to ultimately require'removal from the catalyst in regeneration or revivification treatments and with no pore space in the catalyst less of such products that may still be formed will find a lodging place and that which does fail to escape, being of necessity deposited on a smooth solid surface, may be more simply removed. The combined eifect is, therefore, that the non-porous acid-film supported catalysts of the present invention require regeneration only at very infrequent intervals as compared to porous catalysts of the solid acid type, the regeneration is much less difficult to perform and is not attended with any permanent degradation.

Regeneration of an acid-film-on-quartz catalyst may be effected merely by washing off the solvent for tars and gums, steaming out residual solvent and replacing the acid. No burning operation is necessary and even though it be considered preferable to burn off rather than dissolve off the deposits from the catalyst support no careful control would be required since no damage to the quartz could result from any ordinary burning operation. Regeneration of filmtype catalysts employing other than acids as the active polymerizing agent would; of course, be correspondingly simple.

While the preparation and satisfactory use of the simple, eflicient and economical film-type polymerization catalysts herein described is in no way dependent upon a theoretical discussion of why they possess the outstanding advantages which have been described and demonstrated a simple explanation is apparent, now that the phenomenon has been discovered, which is entirely consistent with the observed facts.

A polymerization reaction is different from most chemical reactions which are ordinarily effected by means of catalysts in that it may, if not specifically stopped, proceed through any number of stages by mere repetition of the same mechanism that was responsible for the first stage. In order to produce high yields of a polymer corresponding to any given stage it is thus obviously imperative that the reaction be so effected that substantially all of the molecules built up may be stopped at the same point and none of them be permitted to continue to react through several or This, of course, requires since even though both pore and external surfaces were equally active, which, from present views of heterogeneous catalysis, is probably not the case, the product of any given stage of polymerization could certainly less readily escape from further reaction when confined in a catalyst pore than when on an external surface. Obviously then the best that could be hoped for in control of the degree of polymerization effected by a porous catalyst would be a statistical average between under-polymerization at the external surface and over-polymerization deep in. the pores.

In a case where the degree of polymerization desired is high and consequently a few stages more or less would have little relative effect on the nature of the product such a statistical average might be entirely satisfactory. At the opposite extreme, however, where one stage of polymerization gives the desired product and two stages a product which falls entirely without the desired range a catalyst permitting only a statistical average control obviously could never be really satisfactory.

for the controlled polymerization of gaseous ole- I fines, both other agents possessing polymerizing power such for example as sulfuric acid, benzene sulfonic acid, toluene sulfonic acid, petroleum sulfonic acids, aluminum chloride, zinc chloride, and other non-porous supports than those specifically herein mentioned and various combinatioris of such groups may be employed without departing from the principle herein taught and exemplified.

Catalysts of the film-type employing films of active polymerizing agents have hereinabove been discussed in connection with the polymerization of readily polymerizable molecules such as the normally gaseous olefines and have been shown to possess outstanding utility in reactions in which the degree of polymerization must be limited to one or two unions. It is however a well known fact that many polymerizing agents possess substantial catalytic activity in reactions of polymerizable molecules other than polymerization per se and at temperatures not far removed from the region of their polymerizing activity. For instance aluminum chloride, phosphoric acid and sulfuric acid, all active polymerizing agents, are also active in effecting the condensation of gaseous olefines with aromatics, naphthenes and even parafiins resulting in the alkylation of the latter. In such reactions it is obviously desirable to prevent as far as possible polymerization of the olefine, both to conserve olefine and to avoid undesired polymers in the condensation or alkylation product. To this end it is necessary to maintain rather exact control of the reaction and it will be readily apparent to those skilled in the art that the film-type of catalyst will be advantageous for substantially'the same reasons that it has been shown to be of advantage in rigorously controlled polymerization reactions.

In still other reactions involving polymerizable molecules, such as in the isomerization of normal to iso-olefines and the dehydrogenation of paraflins to form olefines, naphthenes to form aromatics, olefines to form di-olefines, the isomerization, alkylation or other processing of cracked naphthas, etc., employment of the film principle of catalyst formation herein described will be found useful and advantageous. As an example of the first such reaction we have with advantage employed phosphoric acid and zinc chloride film-type catalysts for the isomerization of normal butene to isobutene.

In summary of the basic principle of our invention it may be said that wherever a material possessing polymerizing activity is to be employed as a heterogeneous catalyst in a reaction involving readily polymerizable molecules, and exact control of the reaction is desirable, the catalytic material may be employed to advantage as a thin film adsorbed on an appropriate non-porous inert support. The several catalytic materials hereinabove named and the reactions discussed are thus clearly to be taken as exemplifying rather than limitingthis broader aspect of the invention. I

In the process of polymerizing gaseous oleflnes to liquid motor fuels by means of a phosphoric acid-film catalyst which is herein used to exemplify our invention the catalyst may be prepared in situ in a suitable chamber, as previously indicated, or when preferred by reason of special circumstances may be prepared outside and introduced into the catalyst chamber and the acid brought to the desired concentration, usually about 110% H3PO4 or 79.7% P205. The gas ultimately to be polymerized may conveniently be employed for'this purpose since it must contain water vapor at a partial pressure equal to the vapor pressure over 110% HaPO4 at the temperature to be employed in polymerization in order that the catalyst may remain constant throughbut the reaction. With a nominal butane-butene cut from a petroleum cracking operation polymerization is conveniently effected at about 200 pounds per square inch gauge pressure and a temperature of about 300 F. and hence the'gas' should contain water vapor at a partial pressure of from 0.2 to 0.5 millimeters of mercury.

While phosphoric acid-film on quartz catalysts may be advantageously employed in the conversion of any available olefine or mixture of olefines containing from two to five carbon atoms either alone or admixed with other gases, as when contained in cracking still gases or cracked or dehydrogenated natural gas, to lightliquid motor fuels of very high anti-knock value, in general, the ease and simplicity of control of the polymerization reaction and hence of the product will be found to be better the more uniform the raw material.

Since the olefine containing gases from petroleum cracking usually contain varying quantities of compounds which may either poison the catalyst or contaminate the .product or both they should be appropriately purified before contacting the catalyst. Such purification is conveniently efiected, as more fully disclosed and claimed in an application Serial No. 67,918 co-pending herewith, by scrubbing the gas successively with appropriate dilute acid and alkaline solutions before it is brought to the required equilibrium water vapor pressure. When the gas .requires to be'dried to attain the desired water content, as is usually the case for operating with the more concentrated acid catalysts at temperatures below 400 F., calcium chloride, barium perchlorate or any other ordinary desiccant which is nonreactive with gaseous olefines may be employed in convenient apparatus.

The olefine polymerizing reaction being exothermic it is highly important that the catalyst chamber should be of such design as to permit of the ready dissipation of heat. The significance of this feature may be readily appreciated from the fact that a gas containing 40% of butenes when undergoing 95% polymerization will liberate heat enough to raise the temperature of the reaction mixture by more than 200 F. A suitable apparatus has been found to consist of a number of relatively elongated chambers which may be connected either in series or in parallel. With such a system it is LiJsSible to provide for the removal of heat as well as reaction product, if desired, at various points during the passage of any given charge of gas through the process.

In operation on a butane-butene cut at 200 pounds per square inch, the feed being a liquid at atmospheric temperature may be so metered to the apparatus, and ratesmay then be expressed in definite units rather than in terms of the often ambiguous so-called space velocity." For such a cut and a reaction temperature from 150-400" F. a convenient charging rate has been found to be about 2 gallons per hour per cubic foot of -20 mesh quartz100 H3PO4 acidfilm catalyst. Under such conditions with proper purification and humidity control of the charge and proper temperature control in the catalyst chamber the catalyst will retain its activity for several months and produce many hundreds of gallons of light liquid product per cubic footbetween revivification treatments.

Such efficient operation together with the simplicity, ruggedness and low first-cost of the catalyst and the already emphasized superior characteristics of the product combine to give an overall result not hitherto realized.

Having now described a new and useful concept in the construction of catalysts for use in reactions involving polymerizable materials and having disclosed the particular utility of such catalysts in the polymerization of normally gaseous olefines to low boiling liquid motor fuels:

We claim:

1. In a method of effecting a desired catalytic reaction of hydrocarbon compounds, with substantially no polymerization of a polymerizable hydrocarbon involved in said desired catalytic reaction with regard to which polymerization is undesired and which is otherwise polymerizable under the conditions of said desired catalytic reaction by the catalytic agent therefor, the step of effect ng said desired catalytic reaction with substantially no polymerization of said polymerizable hydrocarbon by means of a catalyst for said desired catalytic reaction in a form adapted to control of polymerization of said polymerizable hydrocarbon comprising a non-porous inert support having adsorbed thereon a thin film of said catalytic agent active to effect said desired catalytic reaction.

2. In a method of effecting a desired catalytic reaction of normally gaseous hydrocarbon com- .pounds, with substantially no polymerization of a polymerizable hydrocarbon involved in said desired catalytic reaction with regard to which polymerization is undesired and which is otherwise polymerizable under the conditions of said desired catalytic reaction by the catalytic agent therefor, the step of effecting said desired catalytic reaction, with substantially no polymerization of said polymerizable hydrocarbon, by means of a catalyst for said desired catalytic reaction in a form adapted to control of polymerization of said polymerizable hydrocarbon comprising a nonporous inert solid support having adsorbed thereon a thin film of said catalytic agent active to effect said desired catalytic reaction.

3. The method of controlling the polymerization accompanying a desired catalytic reaction of a hydrocarbon compound in which polymerization is not desired and which desired catalytic reaction involves a hydrocarbon polymerizable under the conditions of said reaction by the catalytic agent therefor, which comprises effecting said desired catalytic reaction with substantiallyno polymerization of said polymerizable hydroagent active to effect said desired catalytic reaction. v

4. In a method of eflecting catalytic alkylation of hydrocarbon compounds while maintaining polymerization of a polymerizable hydrocarbon involved in said alkylation at a minimum, the step of effecting said alkylation while maintaining polymerization of said polymerizable hydrocarbon at a minimum by means of a catalyst for said alkylation in a form adapted to control of polymerization of said polymerizable hydrocarbon comprising a non-porous inert solid support having adsorbed thereon a thin film of a catalytic agent active to efiect said alkylation.

5. In a method of effecting catalytic isomerization-of hydrocarbon compounds while maintaining polymerization of a polymerizable hydrocarbon involved in said isomerization at a minimum, the step ofeifecting said isomerization while maintaining polymerization of said polymerizable hydrocarbon at a minimum by means of a catalyst for said isomerization in a form adapted to control of polymerization of said polymerizable hydrocarbon comprising a non-porous inert solid support having adsorbed thereon a thin film of a catalytic agent active to effect said isomerization.

6. In a process of eifecting controlled uniform catalytic polymerization of a polymerizable hydrocarbon with substantially no over-polymerization thereof, the step of efiecting said uniform catalytic polymerization of said hydrocarbon by means of 'a catalyst therefor in a form adapted to maintaining said over-polymerization at a minimum comprising a non-porous inert solid support having adsorbed thereon a thin film of a catalytic agent active to efiect said uniform polymerization.

'7. In a method of controlling the undesired polymerization accompanying a desired catalytic reaction of hydrocarbon compounds involving a hydrocarbon which under the conditions of said reaction is polymerized to a degree greater than is desired by the catalytic agent for said reaction, the step of controlling said undesired polymerization which comprises efiecting said desired catalytic reaction by means of a catalyst therefor in a form adapted to control oi! the polymerization of said hydrocarbon comprising a non-porous inert support having adsorbed thereon a thin film of said catalytic agent active to eflect said desired catalytic reaction.

MELVIN M. HOLM.

WILLIAM H. SHIFFLER. 

